The Next Best Thing
by Backroads
Summary: Why do twin sisters always have to be right there?


_This is dedicated to my own obnoxious twin brother._

A twin was a necessary evil. Tuffnut was not even sure if twins were necessary. Perhaps twins were just evil. For as far back as he could remember there had been this girl, constantly next to him, constantly bothering him, constantly trying to show him up and bully him and then getting upset when he claimed he didn't want anything to do with her. Which was a lie, of course, but sometimes there was only so much a guy could take. Sometimes he wished the whole twin thing could be dropped and Ruffnut could do her own thing while he did his.

Like that was ever going to happen. Their mother had told them pregnancy had been torture for her with the two of them wrestling in the womb. That had never stopped. In infancy it had been more of the same plus what could only be explained as a contest to see who could scream the loudest. Pushing, hitting, bugging… it was a lifelong phase they were apparently never going to grow out of. Competition.

It was fun. Tuff would not deny that. There was something assuring about always being able to count on someone being there to make life interesting, an automatic playmate.

But the exciting things always seemed to be what Tuff wanted to do. True, he had a knack for knowing what activities would be the most risky and therefore the most awesome; his taste was impeccable and of course his sister couldn't help but admire his choices. But couldn't she ever just go and do something… girly?

He never said that aloud anymore. The last time he had suggested it, he had wound up with blood pouring from his nose.

Still, it seemed that Ruff existed to match everything he did, to follow in his footsteps. He was the big brother by a solid seventeen minutes. Maybe her youth made her incapable of thinking for herself.

Not that he was dumb enough to say that.

Was that how it was supposed to be? The two of them always doing the same thing? There was no one with whom he could compare. They were the only twins living in Berk. Twins were rare, and it was even rarer for both to survive birth and infancy. They were special, a blessing, their family and tribe's own Freya and Freyr.

Sometimes Tuff wondered what his sister would be like if they had been not been brother and sister, or at least not twins.

But there was no way of knowing, so he continued to torment her and she continued to torment him. He would do anything for Ruff, and most of the time she was great to have around. She was the next best thing to having a brother. In so many ways she was pretty much the same thing as having a brother.

Except when she just had to, for whatever reason, be a girl. When they were about fourteen, she became more moody than usual once a month and could spend hours talking to their mother. She liked to brush her hair even more than he did and could spend up to an hour having to braid it perfectly. She got way too excited in lambing season. And Tuff really did not want to hear claims of "he's cute!" about random males in the village.

Maybe it would be okay if she were anything but his twin, or if the girliness would be something more than the occasional thing, like if she stayed home instead of coming out to do dragon-killing things. But no, there were too many women off slaughtering dragons for Tuff to make an argument that she only did what she did because he was doing it.

But dragon training wasn't for girls. Well, Astrid would of course be there, but she was Astrid and Ruffnut was Ruffnut. Astrid actually wanted to fight. Ruff just wanted to get in a fight with a dragon because Tuff wanted to get in a fight with a dragon. At least he was admitting it. Ruff was just a follower.

Not that he was going to tell her that.

He tried in other ways. The morning of the first day of dragon training he was up before her and gobbling down his breakfast before she even managed to have her hair braided. He swallowed and barely managed not to choke on his last bite as she appeared. He was going to be out the door before she had a chance to do a thing. He did not need to be at dragon training with her.

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded as he grabbed the door.

"Dragon training. Where do you think?" He tried not to pause, but he couldn't resist talking it up. After all, he was going to kick some scaly butts. "I have dragons to slay and an island to save."

She rolled her eyes. "And you're leaving without me."

Because she was always always always tagging along. He locked eyes with her. "Of course. I'll take care of everything."

She wasn't fazed. She was never fazed. "You and what army?"

He let the door bounce against his foot. "Like you think you're going? Girls don't go to dragon training. At least, not weak girls."

"Exactly." She strode right up to him and bashed his helmet down over his head. "So stay home and I'll go to training."

Tuff gasped quickly. Helmet bashing was always a shock to the system. "Please. I saw you making a flower chain yesterday. You're such a girl."

She slugged him in the shoulder. "Those were weeds!"

"Flowers," he said with a grin, slugging her back. "Really pretty flowers. And you were humming while you did it. It was sooo cute."

"You're an idiot!" She grabbed his arm and tried to force him out of the doorway. "I am so allowed to go to dragon training. I should be the one going. Not you."

"You're the girl. Stay home. Bake bread. Play with flowers."

Her response was a door edge in his face.

And then it was out. There was something about a sharp sting and red before the eyes that loosened the tongue."You're only going because I am!"

Ruff had prepared to hit him with the door again. "What did you say?" Her voice was low and deadly.

Maybe he shouldn't have said it. But it was only Ruff. "You're just trying to be almost as good as me."

"I'm better than you!"

"No, you're not. And I'm better looking." He knew he was asking for a pounding from her, but whenever it came to bothering his sister, he couldn't stop. "You do everything just because I do it."

She stared at him for a long time, eyes showing a mix of hatred, fury, and, to his horror, amusement. "You really think you're something, don't you? You're the only person in the village who has ever wanted to kill a dragon or go cliff-diving. Right?"

Well, they were all Vikings. She had him there.

"Ever thought that maybe you act like me?"

His jaw dropped. "… I don't…"

She rolled her eyes again. "I'm going to training. I'm going to get my arm torn off and everyone will think I'm awesome. And you can stay here. You can bake bread or something."

"But… but you're a girl!" Pathetic and useless response. He was humiliated just saying it.

"Well, sorry for being a girl!" She kicked him in the shin. "Ever thought that we could possibly like the same things? You have the brains of a troll. I'm going to beat you there."

She slammed the door.

Tuff rubbed his nose where the door had hit it. She was way too smart for her own good. But not smart enough. He knew the truth.

She followed whatever he did. There was no way he would ever copy her.

_The End_


End file.
